PUNDITRY, of course, has its legitimate value and purpose
in our life. It facilitates our knowledge of things in areas that are
quite unfamiliar to us, since they are not our fields of
specialization and yet they also are relevant to us. It clarifies
things for us, and helps us in forming our own opinions, decisions and
choices. It actually is a great service to society.
In politics, for example, which is important to our
collective life and where developments can occur in warp speed,
punditry can be very helpful since we can avail of expert opinions
from those who are closely following and studying its twists and
turns. I appreciate those fellows who are into this business, since
they are actually doing a very complicated job, sorting out complex
issues for us.
We just have to be careful in distinguishing between a
good and enlightening punditry, on the one hand, and a rotten one, on
the other hand, that is full of rigid biases and prejudices.
Especially in the most delicate field of politics, we should be able
to keenly distinguish between the two, since every pundit will always
try his best to be very attractive, to sound very objective and fair,
when in fact they are the opposite.
During these stay-home days, I had the chance to go
through the opinions of several talking head and opinion-makers in the
American political scene. As a priest, I do not indulge in partisan
politics, but that does not prevent me from following the political
developments, since this field of human endeavor, just like any other,
also needs to be evangelized, humanized and Christianized.
In fact, politics’ need for evangelization, humanization
and Christianization should be more keenly felt since it involves the
whole society in a very direct way. Even if politics only has a
temporal purpose, it definitely has spiritual and moral dimensions
that need to be taken care of. It is for this latter reason that I
follow and study the political developments here and everywhere else.
What I can say about the punditry in the American
political scene is that it has really gone awry. The pundits are
sharply divided and polarized to such an extent that, to my mind, each
party thinks he exclusively holds what is objective and fair for
everyone and the other side has none whatsoever.
They are quick to find fault at each other. Bashing,
sowing intrigues, resorting to all sorts of fallacies and red herrings
now seem to be the main focus of their work. They can even go so low
as to get into insults, mockeries and all kinds of “ad hominem”
arguments. And all this is being supported by big and powerful
communication outfits!
Even those pundits whose views I find to be more
reasonable, are not exempt from some irregular practices. Of course,
they can always rationalize that if those in the opposite side resort
to below-the-belt tactics, why shouldn’t they? As some conventional
wisdom would put it, all is fair in love and war.
But that should not be the case. Difficult, if not
impossible, as it seems, we just have to make political punditry human
and Christian. It should not be field for a free-for-all approach.
It’s true that in this life, we are told to learn how to be wise,
shrewd and clever like serpents. But such traits should always be
accompanied if not inspired by the simplicity and innocence of doves.
(cfr. Mt 10,16)
Pundits should realize more deeply that to do their job
really well they have to have a strong spiritual life, a life of close
relationship with God. Only then can they do their punditry in truth
and charity. It’s when they rely only on some ideologies that they
actually downgrade the quality of their job and mission in society.
To be truly good pundits, not only should they be good
technically. More important is that they be truly good persons and
children of God!
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